The Black Order
The next day, the girl arrived in England in the late afternoon. She was half asleep because she was listening to the conductor's calls for stations. Finally, the train arrived at her station. The station was not in the town but it was on the way to where she needed to go.
'The Black Order' was her destination. She had never heard of the Black Order but she trusted the man's directions. When she was outside of the town, she had an uneasy feeling that she was being followed and watched but no one was around her. She usually wore gang like clothes just to keep others away from her when she's traveling.
The town that she passed through had more stores than she had ever seen in a while. It was very busy today. People were crowding the streets and it was difficult to walk through. She took a few wrong turns a couple of times and ended up at dead ends.
In a few of the alleys she ended up in, it seems like there was someone lurking in the shadows. A dark aura or atmosphere surrounded the alleys. If she felt that dark atmosphere, she'd just tell herself to stay calm and move on.
Last night's situation was a little different. When she ran into those guys, she was terrified but she remembered her training and the first step was never show anyone you were afraid. As long as she's calm and focused, she can fight really well.
She decided to browse at some kiosks. She stopped at a jewelry stand but they were too expensive for her and the manager was yelling at her that if she didn't have enough money, she couldn't browse. So she just left and continued to walk around.
'Hey, maybe I can get customers here. That is, after I deliver the package.' When she could see the end of the road, she walked by a bar and there was some men fighting. When she looked down on them when they were on the ground, she covered her mouth and was looking around for a garbage can to throw up in.
When she finally made it out of town, all she could see was a very large field and a river that ran along side it. The field had no natural paths and there was nothing that could be seen. It was like an African savanna but it wasn't flat.
"I just need to keep on going north until I see some kind of big building." She was walking north for about an hour and a half until she got to the top of a big hill.
"This is where it's supposed to be, I don't... ah, and I never would've guessed it was on top of a cliff. I wonder who lives here." There was a very tall cliff and the top was covered by clouds. She backed up a bit and then ran and jumped on to some ledges. It was easy jumping from ledge to ledge because of her martial arts training. When she was half way up, the ledges were too small to jump and she had to climb the rest of the way up. When she got to the top, she saw a flag with the same symbol on her package.
'This looks like the right place.' She walked over to the railing to look how high she was, she couldn't even see the bottom because of the clouds. 'Holy... Crap. Who in their right mind would build a building here? Maybe this is a secret building with a secret organization! But why would he send me? I've read this book about people going on this errand to this organization but they never came back! Oh, what am I saying? Shishou had always said to give people the benefit of the doubt. So maybe this might be different from the books.' She was about to continue down the path when this person came out of no where and pushed her to the side.
"Get out of my way, girl." As she got up, she was extremely dizzy. Her head was spinning and then she saw a place that was not the pathway she was on. Was she dreaming? It was a dark room and she heard the person who pushed her was talking to himself.
"Hee-Hee, those stupid Exorcists won't know what hit them. I'll give this bomb to the Head Officer and it will go off after a few seconds as soon as I am outside the gate."
Just then, the pathway came back. 'What the heck was that? Something about a bomb? I think that guy has got a bomb! I'm not taking any chances. I got to stop it before it explodes!' She dashed to the gate. When she arrived at the gate, a voice came from a black bat robot like thing. "Who goes there? And what is your purpose for being here?"
"Teal"
"Anthony" the two said at the same time "I'm here to deliver a package to Komui."
The man beside Teal stared at her. "Get your own job. I was here first. I bet your package is a fake. You want proof of mine? Here." Teal kicked the man's package as hard as she could.
"What did you do that for idiot?" Teal ignored his taunt. She watched the package hover in mid air for a second and start descending.
Three... two... one... BOOM! The package that he had exploded. There was scorch marks on the wall and on a couple of trees around them.
-
"Send some help for that girl before she gets killed." Komui, the head of the Science Department ordered.
"No need Head Officer," called Section Chief Reever, "Allen's on it."
Anthony was in so much rage that he forgot where he was and changed into a level two akuma form. His body was a huge old rotten tree.
"What the heck?" Teal watched in horror as the human standing in front of her transformed into some kind of monster. Before she could draw her sword to defend herself, he grabbed her by the collar.
"You little..." he threw Teal against a wall. "I'm going to kill you for getting in my way!" He began strangling her and ripped off her ribbon on her neck. Teal tried desperately to draw her sword. Teal's package fell out of her bag. That distracted the akuma for a minute.
"I detect Innocence." He smiled and grabbed the package and loosened his grip on Teal.
"Drop that!" Teal screamed. The akuma tore open the package. "What's this? Ribbons? BWAHHAHAHAHA! What kind of weapon is a ribbon?" Teal was able to break free of his grip and grabbed the ribbons. She had her ribbons in one hand and her sword in the other.
"Even if they are ribbons, I swore to protect them. You can have them over my dead body!" She pointed her sword at the akuma.
"Like that's going to give you a chance to survive. Prepare to die..." Teal braced herself and waited for the akuma to move.
"CROSS GRAVE!" A white cross appeared on the monster.
"Stand back!" A voice came from no where. There was a boy who jumped in front of her. He had white hair and a large silver left arm. It was more like a claw.
"An exorcist? But... Oh yeah I'm at the Black Order. I shouldn't have blown my cover."
"Doesn't matter," The boy replied sharply, "I saw you with my eye." Teal noticed the boy's left eye was not normal. It was black with red rings. She watched in amazement as the boy's left arm changed into a gun. 'How did he do that?'
He shot the monster and the monster seemed to be somewhat damaged. There were numerous attacks from both the boy and the monster. The monster took a few steps back and was about to fire its gun at the boy. The shot was fired before the boy could take it in but instead, it was shot at Teal and hit her in the arm.
"I had enough fighting you and not being able to kill you. So I decided to change my target to someone who can't resist the Blood Virus." The akuma blood virus is a virus that destroys people from the inside within seconds. Black stars called pentacles appeared over Teal's body. She grasped her arm and groaned in pain.
"Damn, I should've been quicker," the boy muttered.
"If you don't mind, I'll take the ribbons... WHA?" The akuma stepped back in shock at Teal. The bullet hole in her arm was healing rapidly and the pentacles that were suddenly appearing all over her body vanished shortly after appearing. She was still standing after a direct hit. Her sword was knocked into a tree and she had nothing to defend herself with.
"You're supposed to be dead! Bet you can't do that again." The akuma fired again but this time, the boy shielded her.
"You ok?"
"I'm fine." The ribbons that she was holding suddenly wrapped themselves around her arms. She tried tugging them but they wouldn't budge.
"They won't come off." She was starting to panic. The akuma shot at her again and the boy grabbed her and dodged.
'Wow, he's fast.'
"Just give me the girl and I won't kill you!"
"Bring salvation to this akuma's soul!" The boy shouted. Then he destroyed it and deactivated his arm.
"Are you alright?" He asked.
"Yes. You're quite the fighter. Oh no! Where's my ribbon?" Teal was scrounging around for her choker.
"This?" The boy held up her black and gold ribbon.
"Yes! Thank you! It's my most valuable treasure. Now I just need to get my sword." Teal walked up to the tree that had her sword. The branches were burnt and looked like they were weak. Teal climbed up on the tree next to it.
"You know I could get it for you." The boy offered.
"It's okay. I almost got it-." Teal grabbed her sword and the branch she was on snapped. It was falling and Teal quickly jumped on the ground on all fours like a cat and the branched landed behind her. The boy jumped back a bit. Teal didn't budge.
"Oh boy. That was close." He said. Teal looked at the branch after she put her sword back in her coat.
"I'm somewhat used to it. Besides, no pain, no game." She shrugged.
'What kind of person is she?' "My name's Allen. Where did you get those ribbons? If I'm not mistaken, they have Innocence in them."
"I'm Teal. Some guy gave me a package with them and said to bring them here. I don't know who he was. I wonder if there's anything else in that package." Teal had picked up the torn box. All that was left was an envelope. It didn't say 'Komui Lee' instead it said 'Allen Walker'.
"Allen is your last name 'Walker'?" She turned her head to him.
"Yes..." The same feeling happened when Teal was pushed down when she touched the envelope. She started to get dizzy and Allen and everything else disappeared. She saw an envelope with numbers on it and she could tell it was a bill. A very large bill. Everything can back and the writing on the envelope was gone.
"Allen, this envelope has a bill." Allen's face went pale.
"Wah? It was my master that gave you that! And how did you know it was a bill?"
Teal didn't know what to say.
"Er... I'm an odd job worker and I deliver these all the time." She said quickly. 'I got enough problems already and going to the psychiatric department is not and should not be on my list.'
"And since there was nothing else in the package, I guess I was the package." She laughed.
"Allen! Are you alright?" Allen nodded.
Teal looked to see who was calling. It was a girl in a black uniform that looked the same as the man she met the night before except the outlining was silver, not gold. She looked about the same age as Teal and had very long green-black hair that was in long pigtails.
"Are you alright too?" Teal nodded as well. "That's good. I'm Lenalee Lee; I am one of the exorcists here. Allen's an exorcist too.
"Nice to meet you, I'm Teal." Teal gave a peace sign. "What exactly are exorcists?" She tilted her head a bit.
"You know that monster that I just destroyed? Exorcists are the only people who can destroy them." Allen said.
"C'mon, I'll take you to see my brother and I'll show you around a bit." Teal was a little bit freaked out.
"Whoa, hold on a sec. I don't think I can be an exorcist. I'm just a delivery girl from the wrong side of the road. No... Wait, that doesn't sound right..."
"But those ribbons on your arms might have Innocence. If you have Innocence, then you are an exorcist." Lenalee said. "We have to make sure. C'mon, follow me."
Teal followed Lenalee inside. "Hey pretty impressive." The hallways were long, the rugs were a solid black and red, and there were guards and those bat things everywhere.
"This is the Black Order. Exorcists and Finders live here and many here call this place 'home'. My brother will give you the details about the Exorcists and Finders later. This is the dining room...This is the hallway to the baths. On the right are the Ladies baths. We also have a library, an infirmary and personal living quarters."
"We get our own room?" Teal was extremely excited. "Also, how big is the library, Lenalee?"
"It's huge. The Order has almost every book that was written. You like to read?"
"Yeah, I love to read. I read and draw whenever I'm not working."
"C'mon, let's go this way."
"Hello there! I'm Komui Lee, the Head Officer of the Science department. And I am Lenalee's brother. From what we've seen, those ribbons might've been infused with Innocence. I need to ask you to activate them and then, I'll check what other damage was done."
Teal sat down on a stool beside a bench inside of a doctor's office. She looked around and there were many tools on the walls. They looked extremely sharp and Teal didn't even want to think what they were used for.
"Now, concentrate on activating your Innocence." Komui commanded.
'Innocence, activate?' Teal shut her eyes and tried to think on turning her ribbons into weapons. When she opened them, there were long blades on her arms and the edges were glowing a bright green.
"Excellent. Now try to hit this target from a distance." Komui pulled up leftover metal from an experiment and placed it against the wall.
"But... Wouldn't that destroy it? The wall, I mean." Teal asked.
"Don't worry. It's fine. I just want to see if your weapon could attack from afar."
Teal wasn't sure what to do. Then her body was moving on it's own and her head was giving her instructions. 'Your weapon can use attacks by elemental spells.'
'Spell of Water: Magic Tide' A wave of water came from nowhere and Teal was moving around her arms, controlling it. Then she moved her arms around and the water circled around the target. 'Freeze' The target was frozen solid.
"Not bad. But this is nothing compared to the battlefield. Now run up to it and destroy it." Teal ran up to the target as she was told but when she was about to strike, she slipped and fell. She got up, went back to the spot she was at then she tried again and destroyed the target.
"Is that it?" She turned to Komui. He nodded. "So how do I change it back?" She asked.
"Same way you activate it. Just focus them changing back to normal ribbons wrapped around her arms."
Teal was focusing on it again but this time, she kept her eyes open and the blades were hovering in midair and they transformed into ribbons and wrapped themselves around her arms again.
'Wow...'
"Now, time for your medical exam." Komui walked around Teal and there wasn't as much as a scratch on her, despite of her getting shot and falling out of a tree. Then when he asked Teal to roll up her sleeves, he saw three faint crosses on her wrist.
"Teal, how long have you had these cuts?"
Teal didn't want to tell him. She was looking forward to becoming an exorcist and if he knew what those marks were, they'd throw her out.
"They're birthmarks" Teal didn't exactly lie. She was told that she was born with a cross but she has three now.
"How old are you?"
"16."
"Do you have any family?"
"I have a father in Southern France but I haven't seen him in a few months."
"Do you have any special abilities?"
"Well, for some reason, I have a really rapid recovery rate but I wouldn't call that special. And recently I'd had these visions. Like when I bumped into that guy, that's how I found out about that bomb. And I remember the other day I had this vision about someone getting killed in some town after I bumped into another person and then later when I came into the town, I saw the exact same guy, just lying there in a pool of blood and he had black stars on his skin. I thought it was a coincidence so I ignored it. I sound like a crazy person, don't I?" She slammed her head on the table.
"No, not at all. There are a few people with abilities and they may come in handy when battling." Komui smiled.
"Like what?" Teal looked up at him.
"Like... um... Well, I can't really say for sure but you're not the only one. I suggest that you talk to an exorcist called Bookman and he could help you out there. Unfortunately, he's on a mission and won't be back until later tonight or tomorrow."
After her examination, Komui escorted her to an elevator. It was fairly unusual. There were no cords attached and it was floating on its own. Komui pulled down a lever and they descended to a dark area.
"Komui, what is this place?" Teal asked with a fascinated look on her face.
"This is a place where we check your Innocence; how strong it is."
"How do you do...?" Some thing grabbed Teal's arms and legs and lifted her in the air. "That?" She finished.
She looked at what grabbed her. They were silvery white tentacles. Teal looked up and she saw this thing that kind of looked like a woman. She didn't have eyes because where her eyes are supposed to be is covered by hair.
"Don't be afraid... I am you're ally. My name is Hevlaska. I am an exorcist as well." Hevlaska brought her head close to Teal. Teal saw the symbol that she had seen all around the Order. Hevlaska placed her head on Teal's head.
"The Elemental Blades... A soldier of life is born today..." She place her forehead against Teal's and started to mutter some percentages.
"You're maximum synchronization rate is 78%... This is unusual..." Hevlaska placed Teal back on the elevator.
"What's up, Hev?" Komui asked.
"Your Innocence is still new to you and you have a somewhat high synchronization rate... That's normal. The strange thing is... I sense another presence inside you."
'It's that woman...' Teal clenched her fist.
"It is powerful... But it is nothing to be feared. If you find the true purpose of this presence, it will bond and increase your Innocence's power."
"Another... presence?" Teal asked. 'That woman is dark. I doubt she could be the presence.'
"Yes. I can't say exactly what it is but in time... I'm sure it will light your path."
"Komui, what is Innocence?" Teal turned her head to Komui.
"This all began thousands of years ago. A 'cube' was discovered. Inside the cube, a prophecy from an ancient civilization was discovered and instructions on a certain material. The cube was made of the certain material as well. It was known as 'Crystals of God' and possessed strange powers. We call this 'Innocence'. The Innocence that has been processed and converted into a weapon is known as an 'anti akuma weapon'. The creator of the cube says that they defeated the Earl and his demons using the Innocence. But then, the world was destroyed. In the Old Testament, this was known as the great flood. In the cube chronicles, this was known as the three days of darkness. The cube has a prophecy that the three days of darkness will return but this time, at the hands of the Earl. The Earl has returned and the New World Alliance has decided to obey the message of the cube. And they created the Black Order. Those who acquire the power of Innocence are called 'accommodators' or exorcists. The Earl has created an army to destroy God. The army is made up of akuma, a machine like demon. If Innocence is 'light' there has to be something 'dark' to balance it. The dark matter is what creates akuma. If an akuma evolves, the dark matter becomes stronger and harder to destroy. The Earl is planning to destroy the Innocence to avoid its resurrection. There are 109 units of Innocence and they are scattered throughout the world. We must recover the Innocence to gather enough strength to defeat the Earl."
"Wow, that's amazing. Who is the 'Earl'?"
"He's a man who plots to destroy the world. Very few have seen him but he is very deadly. He is the leader of a party called the 'Noah Clan'. They have super natural powers and can destroy Innocence. We've only encountered one so far. So basically, you have to fight. Understand?"
"Yep. I'm always up for kickin' some bad guy butt. Count me in!" She gave him thumbs up.
"Welcome to the Black Order, Exorcist Teal." Komui smiled and shook Teal's hand.
Some time later, Teal met up with Allen and Lenalee. "Hey," called Lenalee, "Do you understand about Innocence and the Exorcists?"
"Yes I do. Thanks for asking. And Hevlaska said my synchronization rate is 78%."
"Do you want to meet the other Exorcists?" Allen asked.
"Not right now Allen. I am so tired and I want to turn in. I'd love to meet them tomorrow."
"Alright, goodnight!" said Allen and Lenalee.
"Night!" Teal smiled at the two exorcists and walked to the personal rooms. 'Maybe this presence will help me defeat that woman. The price is pretty high for me but if it means getting rid of her for good, I'll put my faith in God.'